Elementary School Student Admits To Hacking Government Website Under Anonymous in Exchange for Video Games

A 12-year-old boy in Canada has admitted and pleaded guilty to three charges of hacking government websites under the hacking group “Anonymous.”

The fifth grade student from a small Montreal suburb appeared in court on Thursday after it was discovered that he was the one behind the hacker attacks. According to reports, the young boy hacked the government websites and gave information to Anonymous in exchange for video games. The boy’s hacking efforts temporarily shut down the websites of the Montreal police, the Quebec Institute of Public Health, the Chilean government’s official site, and more. Police estimate the costs of the sites shutting down were around $60,000.

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The boy appeared in court Thursday along with his father and his lawyer, and it has been discovered that he’s been hacking since he was 9 years old. While in court, the boy’s lawyer maintained that the boy was not doing the hacking in support of the political motives behind Anonymous.

“He saw it as a challenge, he was only 12 years old,” said the boy’s lawyer. “There was no political purpose.”

The boy apparently used three methods of hacking, and it’s reported that he even taught people how to hack. A witness is court said that the boy often warned people about the dangers behind hacking, saying that it is easy to hack, but that it shouldn’t be done often because they will “track you down.”